#58 (2013/CBR5) "The Omni Diet" by Tana Amen, B.S.N., R.N.

The Omni Diet (2013) by Tana Amen is another one of those books I spotted on the "New Books" shelf at the library and picked up on a whim. I'm a sucker for nutrition books. I like to read and compare them, and the premise fit with what I've already decided is healthy eating.

Tana Amen is a nurse and was apparently plagued by health problems for years. She experimented with a number of diets and came across what she calls the "Omni Diet," which involves eating 30% lean protein and 70% vegetables. Tana Amen is apparently the wife of a famous minister and also works with Dr. Oz. I'm not familiar with any of these people, so all of that name dropping didn't do anything for me, but it's likely that Amen already had a strong following before she wrote this book.

On the whole, I like what Amen recommends, and I like how she discusses the pretty dramatic effects that different foods can have on your body. Her diet recommendations are pretty straightforward and pretty strict. Basically, if you eat lean meat and vegetables, your body is going to be much better off. She limits most grains, all sugar, most salt, and all dairy. She also recommends eating organic--for both vegetables and meat (free range, too). There are some smaller sections on recommended supplements as well as a quick chapter on exercise with a beginning exercise program you can do at home. The end of the book consists of probably over one hundred pages of recipes.

I'm certainly not so strict with what I eat, but I like the idea of eating primarily lean protein and vegetables, so I agreed with much of what Amen had to say. However, her ideas seem like a combination of the Paleo Diet and the Zone Diet. She takes the principles from each, but seems to pretend that she's come up with some brand new way of eating that she's discovered.

This book focuses on motivating those with really unhealthy lifestyles. The exercise section, especially, seems geared toward those that never exercise and are intimidated by the idea. I actually got annoyed by her harping on how excessive exercise was bad for you and moderation was key. In addition, Amen promises a lot of weight loss in her diet, something that is not my primary focus.

Even after the many diet books I've read, I still found some helpful information on the best oils to use and some advice on supplements that was new to me. On the negative side, there were no footnotes. Amen often wrote in generalities to support her point, but the reality is often more complicated. Once, while disparaging GMO's, Amen stated that obesity, cancer, etc. had all increased since GMO's have been introduced. I think there could certainly be some problems with GMO's, but there are a million reasons why the disease rates have increased, some of which she'd already gone over in her book. She was discussing possible effects that weren't even clearly correlated with GMO's let alone caused by them. In addition, Amen does not appear to appreciate the significantly increased cost of some of her recommendations. Organic, free range meat is not only difficult to purchase, but it is also prohibitively more expensive.

#36 (2013/CBR5) "Cooked" by Michael Pollan

It was when I saw Michael Pollan on The Colbert Report that I realized he had written another book. I've already read The Omnivore's Dilemma (2006) and In Defense of Food (2008) by Michael Pollan. I'm a fan of books about food and I've been impressed by Pollan's previous books. So, I immediately jumped on my library's website to join the waiting list for Cooked (2013).

I've especially enjoyed Pollan's previous books about food. He gives general advice about what to eat and shows in interesting detail where our food comes from while avoiding the driving agenda that mars so many other books on food and nutrition. Instead of drastic requirements, Pollan tends to focus on common sense, and a healthy variety of foods that we can cook ourselves. And that's where Cooked begins. Pollan splits his book into four sections following the four original elements: Fire, Water, Air, and Earth. These four sections all represent four different types of cooking: barbecue, braising, baking, and fermentation (sauerkraut, beer, etc). We follow Pollan on his journey as he learns how to cook the basics--seeking out experts to help him. Pollan also looks into the history of humankind and cooking, how it all got started, and how it's changed us as a society.

I was excited when I was finally able to pick this book up, but the first section had me almost giving up on it entirely. Apparently I don't have much interest in barbecue. I guess it doesn't help that I don't eat pork (or beef) and all the talk about true Southern values just gave me bad memories of my least favorite co-worker. It felt repetitive and I was bored and I wasn't sure how I would make it through the rest of this rather hefty book.

But I kept reading and Pollan got back to food I actually eat and subjects that are more interesting to me. It felt more like The Omnivore's Dilemma again (in a good way) when Pollan toured small artisan bakeries as well as a Wonderbread factory. A recurring theme was how important cooking was to humans and how much it still means to us now--even though we are in an age where outsourcing our food supply is much more common. Pollan was very relatable as the various different cooking styles challenged and intimidated him in different ways. The experts he recruits to help him are interesting characters on their own. I now have a small urge to try to make some cheese and bread from scratch--as well as just cook more in general. And maybe I'll even do it someday!

Redux #21 - "The Paleo Diet for Athletes" by Loren Cordain, PhD and Joe Friel, MS

I'm definitely getting burned out on these nutrition books, but at this point it's become a kind of addiction. I've learned something interesting or helpful from every nutrition book I've read so far, and I'm afraid if I skip over one I'll miss that one thing that will finally make me understand what really is the best way to eat. The paleo diet is also big in the crossfit world; I figured the least I could do is see what everyone keeps talking about. So I picked up The Paleo Diet for Athletes (2005) by Loren Cordain, PhD and Joe Friel, MS.

The Paleo Diet had a number of things going against it from the get-go, which may or may not be fair. First, it's about the sixth or seventh nutrition book I've read. They all have some good points, but they are also all one-sided and contradictory. At this point, I know a lot about nutrition, and you have to be pretty damn specific and convincing when you contradict what other books and doctors have recommended. Also, my tolerance for one-sided nutrition advice has decreased exponentially with every nutrition book I've read. Secondly, I was a vegetarian for about ten years, and I'm still very amenable to a vegetarian diet, so the constant, "you must eat tons and tons of meat" in The Paleo Diet was a little grating and did not dispose me to accepting everything that was suggested. Finally, I read The Triathlete's Training Bible by the same Joe Friel back when I was thinking about doing triathlons, and I followed his exact advice when it came to strength training. However, I ended up with relatively weak hips, core, and shoulders. I was not well-rounded. My current workouts have made me much stronger and less susceptible to injury. I'm sure Friel is helpful to his very specific clientele of elite endurance runners and triathletes, but going into this book I had already found Friel's advice not the best for me.

I ended up underwhelmed by The Paleo Diet. Although there was a lot of information, and some of it was new and interesting to me, I finished confused and unconvinced why "The Paleo Diet" was the answer to all of our nutrition woes. One problem I had was that this book should really be titled, "The Paleo Diet for elite endurance athletes." Friel goes on and on about what exactly to eat after a 30 minute, 90 minute, 2 hour, and 4 hour long workout--going into excruciating details about exact numbers of carbs and what kind to have, depending on your weight and the intensity, as well as what to eat and drink every 10 minutes during a workout. A lot of it felt like a retreading of his Triathlete's Training Bible, and I got a little bored. I also realized that I am not anal enough for this book. Although I can certainly be compulsive, I was surprised to discover that I just don't care enough to count every single carb and glucose molecule that crosses my lips. I'd really rather eat real fruit than get slightly better performance from gels. However, I can see it appealing to the very serious triathlete. In fact, I sometimes felt the tone was a little condescending to anyone who is not a serious, elite athlete.

The first part of the book is based on the premise that "serious athletes" should not follow the paleo diet before, during, and after workouts and races because they need to refill their glycogen stores, which fuels their workouts. So sports gels, bars, protein powders, and sugary and starchy foods are good in those times (see the book for many more specifics). Finally, the second section of the book got to the paleo diet part. I was actually kind of excited about reading how our stone-age ancestors lived and ate. Unfortunately, most of the interest was sucked out by the use of dry statistics. They ate 25-40% fat, 40% protein and blah, blah, blah. There were some interesting points--that too much protein in a diet is toxic, so the hunter gatherers had to hunt big game because big game had more fat than skinny, little rabbits, and they needed the fat to offset all the protein they were eating. However, there were very few specifics about individual groups, which I would have found more interesting.

This review is already dragging on and on, so I'll sum up my problems. This diet feels very random to me: We are going to base our diet (and some rather drastic diet choices) on what we think men ate over ten thousand years ago, although their diets varied incredibly based on where and when they lived. None of the plants and roots they ate are around anymore or we wouldn't be able to digest them. Except for people who hunt game animals, the meat is considerably different (although I appreciate that the authors recommended grass-fed, free-range meat, and that they warned about the dangers of mercury and other chemicals in fish). No dairy products and no grains are allowed because cave men didn't have them. But canola oil is okay because the authors have decided it's healthy. And stuffing down the sports gels and power bars are okay when you're exercising because "elite" athletes work so much harder than the hunter/gatherers and need to replenish their glycogen storage. And beer is okay once in awhile because the authors are afraid that no one will adopt their diet if they say no alcohol. I kept thinking about the Tarahumara from Mexico that I read about in Born To Run. They are hunter/gatherers that live a primarily vegetarian diet with some small animals for meat, and they are amazing athletes who can run all day. Members of the Tarahumara won the Leadville 100, one of the most challenging endurance races in the country, at least twice. I don't see how the Tarahumara fit in with the authors' hypthesis. I also wondered why there is no allowance for how different people are and how they've evolved. Perhaps if you are related to the Tarahumara you are better at digesting some grains.

I agree that the paleo diet is likely healthier than "the typical American diet," but I was not convinced enough to be converted. I think I'll take a couple points from this book with me, but I won't be playing cave woman any time soon. I really thought this was going to be the last nutrition book for me, but then my brother brought over some book about eating for your blood type and my curiosity is now piqued. I really, really hope that will be the last one, though.

Redux #17 - The Engine 2 Diet by Rip Esselstyn

Well, it's another day, so it must be time for another nutrition book. I've really hit upon a new obsession. I'm so frustrated by all the conflicting and vague information I've been reading that it's inspired me to read even more. At first glance, it may look as if I picked up The Engine 2 Diet: The Texas Firefighter's 28-Day Save-Your-Life Plan that Lowers Cholesterol and Burns Away the Pounds (2009) by Rip Esselstyn because of my latest career interest. However, as interesting and entertaining as Esselstyn's anecdotes about station life were, I picked this book up because of my father. After his recent heart attack, my father's doctor recommended that he go on a vegan diet, a diet developed by a cardiologist and that is explained in The Engine 2 Diet, written by the cardiologist's son, who just happens to also be a firefighter.

I certainly have no idea what really is the "best" way to eat, and this book probably did little more than muddy the waters for me, but my dad seems to be improving on it. Although he still eats some egg whites and some non-fat milk, my father has been surprisingly receptive to the idea of a vegan diet--I guess a heart attack can expand your horizons that way. Since a perfect meal for my father is steak, potatoes and corn, this has been pretty challenging for him, but he's stuck to it. And after about one month, he got his cholesterol tested and it has gone down from about 200 to 125, with his LDL going from about 100 to 38. Now, he is on cholesterol-lowering medication, but I was still impressed by this drop and assume that at least some of it stems from his new diet. I guess the real test will be to see if my mother's cholesterol goes down, as she has pretty much joined him in the diet but isn't taking the medication.

Rip Esselstyn is the son and grandson of very prominent doctors, an impressive professional triathlete, a friend of Lance Armstrong, and a firefighter. He uses all of these connections to help sell his diet and his book that promises to help you lose weight, lower your cholesterol, be healthier, and feel better. The diet itself is pretty simple: eat vegan, low-fat food. This means limiting oils, saturated fat, eating only whole grains, and getting tons of fruit and vegetables. Esselstyn's problem with animal products are the high levels of saturated fat and cholesterol as well as their high levels of protein with no fiber. The saturated fat and cholesterol is pretty obvious, but what about non-fat milk and yogurt? Esselstyn is also against these foods, but his argument is less persuasive. According to Esselstyn, protein leeches the calcium out of your bones, dairy products contain cancer-causing casein, and meat and dairy products are acidic, which is bad for your body. I've heard that protein can affect calcium intake, but I think this is a problem only if you eat too much protein. Granted, most Americans are eating too much protein, but that doesn't necessarily require a vegan lifestyle for everyone. I know less about exactly what casein and an acidic food does to you, and Esselstyn wasn't specific enough for me to be able to agree or disagree with him on this point.

It's interesting to compare Esselstyn's heart-healthy book with The South Beach Diet, another heart-healthy book, and this one actually written by a cardiologist. The South Beach Diet focuses on eating only lean meat and low- or non-fat dairy, but completely restricts sugar and decreases the intake of starchy foods. On the other hand, Esselstyn limits sugar and advocates whole wheat products, but he is not all that picky about starchy/sugary foods as long as there are no animal products. Both diets are apparently successful in lowering cholesterol, and it doesn't surprise me as they both seem well thought out and definitely healthier than what the average American heart patient is probably eating right now. A study comparing these two diets heat-to-head would be interesting, but as far as I know it hasn't been done. Anyway, The Engine 2 Diet was pretty entertaining and I learned a couple things. As far as medical information it's about on par with, The Skinny Bitch. Esselstyn is definitely trying to sell his diet and thus sometimes give a one-sided view of some of the ongoing diet debates. But he's approachable, encouraging, and tells stories about being a firefighter, so I didn't mind reading it.

As far as my father goes, his doctor recommended the vegan diet to him and he is planning on sticking with it. As for me, I've become somewhat convinced from those other nutrition books that I should be watching my intake of grains and sugars a little more than Esselstyn suggests. I've found if I don't have enough protein, I have to eat constantly to stave off hunger or face a mounting headache. My next foray will be into the paleo diet; I want to know more about it. After that, I think I'll arbitrarily mix all of their recommendations together into something that works for me and then take a break from the nutrition books for awhile.

Redux #14 - "The South Beach Diet Super Charged" by Arthur Agatston, MD

After reading The Omnivore's Dilemma; In Defense of Food; Enter the Zone; Skinny Bitch (the sneaky, science-lacking, vegan manifesto); and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, it is pretty obvious that I like to read about nutrition, dieting, and eating. And it's not too surprising: I care where my food comes from and what it does to my body. I want to be healthy. What is always frustrating, however, is that there is no real consensus on what is healthy. There are so many different factors, unknowns, and differences between individuals that any kind of nutrition advice should be taken as "possible guidelines you might want to think about, if they make logical sense, and if you try it and it makes you feel good." Another problem is that if I stuck to a compiled "what-not-to-eat" list from nutrition guides I would starve to death. Meat is bad for you, soy protein is bad for you, beans have too many carbs, milk has been pasteurized, fish has mercury. Nothing is safe anymore.

I prefer books on nutrition that aren't trying to sell some fad diet, so I didn't think much about The South Beach Diet until recently. A couple of weeks ago my father had a heart attack. He's very active, doesn't smoke, isn't overweight, and doesn't eat badly, but his right coronary artery became completely blocked off while he was playing hockey. Fortunately he went to the hospital and they sucked out the clot, put some stents in and, except for a quick but very scary bad reaction to some of his new meds, he's feeling fine. My father doesn't have any history of heart disease in his family, so the only variable left, that I could see that led to this heart attack, was his diet. The nurse at the hospital mentioned that they often recommend some version of The South Beach Diet to their heart patients, so I immediately picked up The South Beach Diet Super Charged (2008) by Arthur Agatston, MD (with Joseph Signorile, PhD) to see what they had to say.

On the whole, I was impressed by the information and guidelines in this book. Dr. Agatston is a cardiologist who focuses on changing your lifestyle so that you'll eat healthy, nutritious foods for the rest of your life--and not just to lose weight. Although many of his recommendations stem from the same nutrition ideas as the Zone--the harmful effects sugars, simple carbohydrates, and saturated fats have on the body--Agatston's diet is more lenient, flexible, and user-friendly. Agatston cares only about the quality of the foods we eat while Barry Sears from Enter the Zone, although he also prefers healthy, whole foods, cares more about the ratio of fats, proteins, and carbs. The South Beach Diet comes in three phases. The first phase lasts two weeks long and is designed to stabilize our blood sugar and reduce cravings by restricting all rice, wheat, potatoes, fruits, etc. After those first two weeks, you can slowly reintroduce some whole wheats, brown rice, and fruit into your diet. By the time you hit phase 3 of the diet, you've hit your weight loss goal, and you've learned enough about nutrition and your body that you can make the right food decisions for yourself.

There is a short exercise section in this book as well. It's good that Agatston appreciates how important exercise is for basic health, and his program is simple to follow, not intimidating for beginners, and can be done easily at home. Between stints of "walking intervals," Agatston incorporates some strength and Pilates-based exercises that looked pretty good. I do much more exercise on my own, so I wasn't particularly interested in this section. My only thought on the subject was that people would be much better off going to a Pilates class than trying to do those somewhat complicated and boring exercises on their own.

I only had a couple of questions and concerns when it comes to The South Beach Diet. First, I appreciate that Americans eat too much sugar, but I really don't like artificial sweeteners or diet soda. I guess it's healthier than guzzling down the pounds and pounds of sugar you might eat otherwise, and I'm assuming that Agatston was trying to make the diet easier for more people to stick with, but at least in Skinny Bitch the authors had the balls to just tell people to stop with the diet soda. Another question/concern I had was about all the meat, and especially the eggs, in all the recipes. For many of the meal plans, Agatston has people eating at least two whole eggs a day. That's over 500 mg of cholesterol and significantly over the daily recommended allowance I've read that two whole eggs a week should be maximum. Of course, I've also read on weightlifting forums that eggs are the perfect food and, if you exercise a ton, you should eat between 20 and 40 eggs a week. I'm playing it safe for now and eating only egg whites, but it certainly isn't clear how good or bad for you eggs really are.

What I want most of all is to get all these authors pinned down in a room where I can ask them questions and they can debate and defend their positions. So many of them contradict each other and they don't give me enough information to figure out for myself what is best. My father's cardiologist said that, because of his heart attack, he should be "as close to vegan as possible" (I haven't been able to read anything specifically on going vegan for heart health yet, but that's my next stop). Then there's Agatston throwing in a lot of meat and eggs in his "heart healthy" diet and claiming that the ratios you eat don't matter, while Barry Sears says the ratios of fat, protein, and carbs is more important than anything else. They do all seem to agree that white bread, white rice, refined grains, and sugar are bad for you, and that a varied diet of whole foods and tons of vegetables is good and healthy. So there is that.

In the end, I liked The South Beach Diet Super Charged. Agatston discussed how sugar and simple carbohydrates affect your blood sugar and your body in a way that was easily understandable and informative, and his focus on exercise and a long-term, healthy lifestyle over simply "losing weight" was encouraging. I think most people could learn something about how to eat better or significantly improve their health by following his advice.

"Skinny Bitch" by Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin

Even with my particular interests in health and nutrition, Skinny Bitch (2005) by Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin would not have been a book I picked up on my own. The cover and title screams out in a trendy, superficial way to trendy, superficial women who only care about being thin. When Doreen Orion included Skinny Bitch in her list of recommended books at the back of her book, the title sounded interesting, but I knew nothing about it. It was when my father bought this book (an action made even more curious because the cover describes itself as, "[a] no-nonsense, tough-love guide for savvy girls who want to stop eating crap and start looking fabulous!") that my curiosity got the better of me and I borrowed it from him.

There are so many things wrong with this book that it's hard to even know where to start. The bookcover sucks in potential readers with the promise of trendy diet tips, but with no warning it turns into a vegan propaganda tract. The authors are two ex-models, one of whom holds a degree in nutrition obtained from an unaccredited college through correspondence courses. I'm sure I'm showing off my natural snobbishness when it comes to education, but if I'm going to take advice from someone, especially on something as complicated and contradictory as nutrition, I want them to know more than me. A look at their sources reads like a high school report, with them basing most of their information on a small number of one-sided secondary sources, many of them websites, including Peta.org and milksucks.com.

Freedman and Barnouin are so focused on their agenda that they are often contradictory and one-sided. They go on and on about the horrors of processed foods, but many if not most of their recommended foods are processed "fake" meats. They also list a ton of recommended soy products with only one short sentence barely mentioning its possible negative side effects. Many of the bad things they say about meat and animal products are exaggerated or do not apply to the organic variety. Although I am a vegetarian and could relate to some of what they say, it's not a book that gives concrete, helpful nutrition advice, and I found it more frustrating than anything.

Yet for some reason, I still didn't hate this book. They made some real points about problems with factory farming, our food supply, and what we eat today. They focus on health and feeling good about yourself, encouraging people to read ingredient labels, eat lots of organic fruit and vegetables, and to think for themselves. And if you know nothing about nutrition and eating healthy, I can see how following the authors' advice could be a step up: eating organic fruit for breakfast has to be better than a poptart...or a doughnut. I guess the danger comes when people blindly accept all the information in the book as true.

I have never seen reviews on Amazon split so evenly between 1 star and 5 stars before. The one-star reviews complained of its tone and lack of science while the five-star reviews claimed that the book changed their lives. In my opinion, a much more enlightening look into the food we eat comes from Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma. I've also found a much more even-handed and informative guide for healthy eating at the non-profit and independent website, "The World's Healthiest Foods" (www.whfoods.com).

"Enter the Zone" by Barry Sears

There are many reasons that I avoid diet books: my understanding is that most of them prey on people's insecurities, throwing useless quick-fix tips at people in exchange for a fast buck. You can find a "study" or advice that contradicts every other "study" or advice out there, which is all incredibly annoying. I very much enjoyed Michael Pollan's books that focus on eating nutritious, whole foods and relying on common sense. So, it took me quite a while to even consider picking up, Enter the Zone (1995) by Barry Sears, Ph.D. with Bill Lawren. I had heard of "the Zone" earlier, but had always lumped it in with "the Atkins diet" and whatever other fad diets were out there. It wasn't until my workout group consistently talked about the Zone and I saw some clips of Barry Sears speaking that my interest was piqued enough to read his book and get a better idea of his nutrition plan.

So it was with some trepidation and a great deal of skepticism that I started reading about the zone. I should say first, that I work out all the time and am pretty thin. My interest in the zone diet stems primarily from the possibility of living healthier and increasing performance. I'm not interested in losing weight.

Sears argues that we, as Americans, are eating way too many, quickly-digested carbs that quickly turn into sugar in our bloodstream, causing an insulin spike that has innumerable negative consequences for our health, including gaining weight and fat, heart problems, diabetes, etc. His diet is focused on keeping your insulin level steady and in control, which somehow (I'm not any kind of doctor, and Sears explained this stuff relatively simply, so I have no idea how much guessing or exaggerating he does in his book) affects other hormones in our bodies which makes us healthier and happier in every way. In order to achieve this balance, Sears prescribes a diet with "adequate protein intake" depending on your weight and lean body mass, with 30% of your calories coming from protein, 30% from fat, and 40% from carbs.

When I first read about the specifics of the diet, it seemed pretty reasonable to me. I mean, it still called for more carbs than protein, which sounded better than Atkins. But then I started paying attention to how many carbs I was actually eating; even the foods I thought of as high protein, like my chocolate soy milk and hummus still had way more carbohydrates than protein. It was also a bit of a shock to discover that my favorite vegetable snack food--carrots--just happened to be the one vegetable loaded with carbs with a high glycemic index (which means they turn into sugar really fast in your bloodstream, making your insulin level spike and your body feel hungry again more quickly).

There were a number of things I found a little sketchy about this book. There is no question that Sears is in the business of selling something, and it often comes off as too good to be true with very little evidence to back Sears up. Sears also talks a lot about weight loss, which I am not interested in and makes me wonder whether he's just sucking in those poor souls who are looking for some magic powder. Finally, I have always favored eating whole, nutritious foods. Even though Sears discusses micronutrient quality and eating lots of fruits and vegetables, which I liked, he also seems to think it's fine if vegetarians get all their protein from soy protein powder. He doesn't seem to care so much about where you get your food--or that you're eating a ton of soy protein, which might have negative consequences--as long as it's got the right combination of macronutrients.

All in all, I was somewhat convinced by Sears' more humble boasts about his diet program. I go throughout the day constantly hungry and if I don't eat enough I have a headache for the rest of the day. Now that I've looked into it, I can see that I've been eating mostly high glycemic carbohydrates, which explains how I can eat so much and still be hungry. I'm also probably pretty low on my protein intake. So, I've decided that it wouldn't hurt to try his program for two or three weeks and see how I feel. If I really do feel a difference, then I'll try to stick with it. I need a little time to figure out all the complicated details, but my plan is to give it a fair shot.

#4 - "In Defense of Food" by Michael Pollan

In Defense of Food written by Michael Pollan and published in 2008 appears to be something of a follow-up book to The Omnivore's Dilemma, which I read not too long ago after spotting it while browsing in The Tattered Cover. So when I saw this new, much thinner book by Pollan, I wanted to read what else he had to say on the subject.

In Defense of Food is a quick overview of Pollan's learned opinion of what kinds of food are healthiest and what foods we should be eating. This isn't any kind of diet guide and it's certainly doesn't give specific directions, but instead states general guidelines that should make Americans healthier. Pollan isn't a scientist and although he seems well-informed on his subject, it seems as though his conclusions are coming from common sense more than any factual or scientific backing. But his conclusions are persuasive and, in my opinion, correct, and it is refreshing to read a book on healthy eating that doesn't get bogged down in the fad diets of today.

The first seven words pretty much sum up all of his advice. "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." It is clear, concise, and incredibly helpful. I can just imagine how better off the American population would be if they could just take it to heart. Pollan makes the point that nutrition scientists and the food industry have a vested interest in having the American public confused about what is good and what is bad to eat when it's really not that complicated. I think this is also true in the diet industry. There are a million commercials, magic pills, and secret diets that makes people think that dieting is some complicated scientific endeavor that they could never do on their own when the truth is that losing weight is incredibly simple. Eat less calories than you burn and you will lose weight. Making it more complicated only muddles matters and distracts from what should be the main focus.

I enjoyed this book and certainly agreed with some of his "rules" printed throughout the book, including: Avoid food products containing ingredients that are a) unfamiliar, b) unpronounceable, c) more than five in number, or that include d) high-fructose corn syrup; Avoid food products that make health claims; Shop the peripheries of the supermarket and stay out of the middle; and Get out of the supermarket whenever possible (as in, go to farmers markets, not go out to eat).

My only complaint is that in parts of the book I felt that Pollan was getting bogged down in the very nutrition science that he is complaining about. Pollan acknowledges this and I guess it is inevitable as it is the only information we have about the healthfulness of our foods, but you can find a study saying anything, so I find studies on food somewhat tedious to read about.

For some reason I find these books about food incredibly interesting. I first read Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, which influenced me enough to buy a breadmaker that I now use exclusively. Then I read Pollan's, The Omnivore's Dilemma, which I also enjoyed and probably those two books encouraged me to cut down on some of the processed foods I was eating, although I was already eating a pretty healthy diet. And now with this book, I think my resolution will be to cut down even more on processed foods, try to cook and bake more of my own food and see how far I can go. I'm not much of a grower, but if I were and had some land, I would totally grow a garden. But my specific plans are a little less grand and a little more realistic. I have decided to switch to bulk oatmeal instead of the Kashi packages of oatmeal. Just one ingredient and cheaper too! Baby steps.